College Football Conference Rankings: Week 4

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I can't remember which conference was the best in the country before the SEC began its current five- or six-year run of dominance. Was it the Big 12? The Big 10? USC and its PAC 10 buddies? Who knows?

Anyway, six SEC teams are ranked among the OGS top 14 this week. No other conference comes close.

After Week 1 exposed the Big East, Week 2 wasn't too kind to the ACC. And with three head-to-head matchups in Week 3, the Big Ten and PAC 10 each had a chance to show themselves as the second-best league in the land.

The winner? The PAC 10 by a length or two.

After USC won at Minnesota and Wisconsin edged past an inferior Arizona State team, Arizona rushed out to a convincing lead over Iowa before holding off a late Hawkeye comeback.

The Wildcats led, 27-7, at halftime, then let Iowa tie the game at 27-27 before the home team got a late touchdown to claim a seven-point win.

Taking two of those three games and almost winning the third was more than enough to give the PAC 10 the second-best-conference tag. Both it and the Big 10 have a national championship contender — Oregon and Ohio State — a pair of potential BCS at-large teams — Stanford, Arizona and Iowa, Wisconsin — and a pretty solid top half that will contend for second-tier bowl berths. But head-to-head, the PAC 10 gets the edge for sure.

Week 4 brings good opportunities for the Big East to redeem itself outside the conference. Pittsburgh welcomes Miami on Thursday, then Cincinnati entertains Oklahoma and West Virginia visits LSU on Saturday. And with most Big Ten squads playing cupcakes, I can't help but bring the Big 12 up to No. 3 ahead of it in this week's conference power rankings:

1. SEC
2. PAC 10
3. Big 12
4. Big 10
5. ACC
6. Big East
7. WAC
8. MWC